WiiWare has been out for a little while now in Europe. but many are yet to be overwhelmed with the games on show. Unlike the slightly better XBLA, Nintendo have opted out of putting up demo’s of the WiiWare titles to let newcomers and people on the fence test them out and instead people have to put down cash before they try a game out that is unrefundable. That’s where we come in! The staff at WiiDS.co.uk want to let you have a bit more understanding of the cream of the crop and so here is our first WiiWare review – Toki Tori.

Toki Tori is a platforming puzzle game that is reminiscent of the Lemmings style and Lost Vikings puzzles slapped together with some new ideas thrown in to make a pretty damn tasty treat. The main character, a small and newly hatched chick named Toki Tori is quested with finding and collecting his family who are still in their eggs after they are snatched away. That’s pretty much it in the way of story but don’t let this fool you, this is no kids game, this game is one hell of a puzzle game!

Beneath the cuteness of the graphics and sickly sweet music is a very well hidden puzzle game. When you start off most gamers will chuckle to themselves while their ego slowly grows, this is only to be squashed later on as some of the stages really push for some serious thought and require several attempts to complete, but in that good way! The game never felt annoying and I never felt frustrated unlike other puzzle games I own, instead it pushes the player in a similar way to Lemmings, Tetris and Puzzle Quest. Toki Tori can suck hours away without the player ever noticing, it has that addictive game play that many games try to pull off but few ever do.

Wiimote controls are simple and effective; the game uses the IR pointing technology in the Wiimote to choose where you want to move and A to order Toki Tori to move. Along the way you get different abilities and power ups such as being able to teleport within a certain area and the ability to build a set amount of bridges which are set before each level is started and these are cycled through using the D-pad and used with the B button. this makes for some fun, easy and relaxing game play which doesn’t require a lot of movement.

Closing Comments

Personally when i saw the Wiiware line-up for Europe, I wasn’t overly impressed. While I was very interested in Lost Winds, Toki Tori never really grabbed me as a title I would enjoy. I was utterly wrong. The puzzles in Toki Tori are a treat which are challenging and fun but never annoying. While only lasting a few hours and costing 900 points the game still shines and I would easily part with the 900 points again for it. Ladies and gents, this is the hidden gem of the WiiWare launch line-up.

Score – 8.5

+ Great game play
+ Simple controls
+ Addictive!

- Music gets annoying after a while
- No replay value